Vertex Rail member Daniel Bigda says Vertex Rail will offer 31,800NCNI*-gallon, 29,000CI**-gallon, 25,500CI-gallon, and 23,500CI-gallon tank cars built to AAR CPC-1232 standards for crude oil and ethanol, as well as a 33,500-gallon pressure tank car. The Worcester facility has the capacity to produce up to 18 tank cars per week; the Wilmington plant is large enough to support production of up to 50 tank cars per week, plus, with new designs, Plate F 286K GRL boxcars, and covered hoppers of 3,300- and 5,000-cubic-foot capacity.

Bigda says the company has orders to take production out to mid-2015. “Our plans are to expand rapidly in late 2014 so that by the beginning of 2015 we will have significantly more capacity to offer,” he says. “We have completed design drawings and are now developing our pilot line production facility that will, starting in Q2 2014, manufacture oil tank cars and will bring some much needed capacity to the market. As well, cars built prior to July 1974 that do not have AAR Interchange Rule 88 Rebuild or Extended Life Status will be retired.”

Vertex Rail’s founders “are industry innovators in both the rail and vessel manufacturing industries that bring more than 100 years of combined industry, fabrication, design, and manufacturing experience to the company,” says Bigda.